Saturday, 11 April 2020

Knowing more about a virus threat may not satisfy you

People who rate
themselves as highly knowledgeable about a new infectious disease threat could
also be more likely to believe they don't know enough, a new study suggests.

In the case of this
study, the infectious disease threat was the Zika virus. But the authors of the
new study, published recently in the journal Risk Analysis, say the results could apply to the recent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

"The Zika virus
and the coronavirus have important things in common," said Shelly Hovick,
co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at The Ohio
State University.

"In both cases,
they are shrouded in uncertainty and have received a lot of media attention.
Our research looks at how people seek and process information when there is so
much uncertainty."

One of the key
findings of the new study: With limited information about Zika available, more
knowledge was not that comforting.

"We found that
the more people thought they knew, the more they realized they didn't know
enough," said Austin Hubner, lead author of the study and a doctoral
student in communication at Ohio State.

"With the Zika
virus, even the experts themselves didn't know much at the time. That's the
same thing we're seeing with the coronavirus, and that's scary for people who
believe they are at risk."

For the study, the
researchers conducted an online survey of 494 people of childbearing age living
in Florida in December 2016.